The Opportunity Coalition is pleased to announce our 2014 Speaker Series schedule, and would like to invite you to attend any or all of these meetings. We are truly excited by the lineup of influential leaders who have already committed to speak at our monthly events.

The Opportunity Coalition Speaker Series features a different Guest Speaker every month and will provide attendees with the rare opportunity to glean wisdom and insights from Colorado’s most influential and accomplished business, academic, legal, and political leaders and entrepreneurs. For more information on The Opportunity Coalition, visit: www.OpportunityCoalition.com

Time:5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Dates & Speakers:

February 20, 2014 – Thursday

Speaker: Steve Bigari, the CEO of Stellar Restaurant Solutions, the premier take-out order processing organization in the world. Steve has successfully started and managed 14 companies and now owns 3 industry patents. Steve is a graduate of West Point US Military Academy and in 2006 was recognized as “Colorado Springs Business Citizen of the Year.”Click HERE to learn more about Steve Bigari & to RSVP

March 20, 2014 – Thursday

Speaker: Senator Hank Brown, who spent six years serving Colorado in the U.S. Senate, five consecutive terms in the U.S. House representing Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, and four years in the Colorado Senate. Former President of the University of Colorado, he is now Senior Counsel at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm. http://www.bhfs.com/People/hbrown

April 17, 2014 – Thursday

Speaker: Attorney General John Suthers, who has served as Attorney General of Colorado since 2005. In 2001, he was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. http://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/about_ag/biography

Note: 50% of your ticket cost will be contributed to Opportunity Coalition’s newOPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, which has been created to assist Colorado’s citizens in all stages of career development and education with individual grants. For more information, to submit a candidate or organization for consideration, or to apply for this opportunity please click here. The recipients of these scholarships will be announced at each OC Event.

We are also excited to announce that Mr. Howard B. Gelt, Senior Partner at the Polsinelli law firm, has recently joined the Opportunity Coalition Advisory Board. To learn more about Howard and our other Advisory Board members, please visit: http://opportunitycoalition.com/leadership/.

We look forward to seeing you at these special Speaker Series and networking events. Together, we can build bridges between business, entrepreneurs, legal, political, and non-profits throughout Colorado to improve our State.

Brian Watson does not wait for opportunity to knock. When the Greenwood Village businessman lost his bid in the state House of Representatives last year, he did not give up on his campaign to help boost Colorado’s economy. Instead, he formed Opportunity Coalition.

“I realized there’s a real disconnect throughout the state with regards to the business community, the nonprofit world and the public-service world,” Watson said. “We really want to have a positive impact in the state and I think that can be created by people getting together and talking about what they do and figuring out how they may be able to collaborate together.”

Unlike a traditional chamber of commerce or economic-development group focused on a particular physical area, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Opportunity Coalition is venturing to cover all of Colorado by bridging the gaps between the Front Range, the mountains and the Western Slope. Watson, an Olathe native whose interests have ranged from manufacturing to operating a party-rental company, cites his own admittedly insular business world as an example and says many of his fellow entrepreneurs have fallen into the same rut.

“Most of my contacts are in my geographic area – Greenwood Village, Arapahoe County, the Front Range,” he said. “How many people do you interact with down in Pueblo or up in Fort Collins or out in Brush? While some businesses may function well in a hyper-provincial environment, Watson expects to see a range of unexpected results when Grand Junction wineries start converging with Tech Center cable executives.

“It’s really creating a platform where they can connect,” Watson said. For example, he says one of his own business associates recently bought a restaurant in Kremmling and was looking to serve Colorado beef. The only problem: The Grand County businessman did not know a soul in the state’s beef industry. “Wouldn’t it be great for him to connect with somebody over in Montrose or Olathe that has an organic beef farm to create jobs and opportunities?” Watson said.

Enter Opportunity Coalition and the organization’s plans for quarterly networking events to be held in different business centers throughout the state. This week’s debut event took place at Innovation Pavilion, a self-described “ecosystem for entrepreneurs.” The 90,000-square-foot incubator in Centennial helps foster a range of high-tech tenants.

“The youngest person to start a business there is still in high school and the oldest person is retired,” Watson said. “Each time we have one of these events, we’ll host it at a location to highlight some type of organization that’s having a great positive impact on Colorado.”

Watson said the next networking event would be held on the Western Slope. There are no fees to join, nor are there any membership requirements. “This is for entrepreneurs, executives, public servants or people who aren’t even employed.

With over 170+ attending -- last night's Opportunity Coalition kickoff event at the Innovation Pavilion was a huge success. A massive thank you to everyone whom attended in support of this great cause. If you weren't able to make it last night, we would love to see you at our next event.

As you may know, I ran for the Colorado House of Representatives (HD-3) in 2012. Though we came up short on Election Day, it was one of the best experiences I have had the opportunity of being involved in, and we are very grateful for every volunteer and donor who helped us! One of the goals of our campaign was to positively impact the citizens of Colorado by growing business and quality jobs throughout the State. Since I am concerned that the current State Legislature will not create a dynamic and friendly business environment, I have decided to launch the Opportunity Coalition (www.opportunitycoalition.com).

The Opportunity Coalition is a non-partisan statewide organization to grow business, quality jobs, and opportunity throughout Colorado - for all of its citizens. The organization will do this by hosting networking events between the Western Slope, Mountain, and Front Range business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. As someone who grew up in Olathe, Colorado on the Western Slope and who now owns several companies that employ over 75 people in Colorado, I realized that the Western Slope, Mountain, and Front Range communities do not communicate and work together at the level that they potentially could to maximize opportunity. By meeting each other and connecting, new productive collaborations and business ideas can be developed between individuals and companies within our great State. This is not a government program, but rather a private sector solution for private sector needs.

The Opportunity Coalition will also work to address the issues that impede positive job growth in Colorado. These primary concerns are:

Education - Developing quality options in K-12, promoting access to useful vocational training, establishing college level affordability, and retraining of older employees to provide relevant skills to the modern work environment.

Entrepreneurship - Promoting entrepreneurship skill sets, knowledge, and access in all age groups, with special emphasis in inner city and rural communities. The real economic recovery will occur through new and existing companies hiring one person at a time.

Environment - Creating a business friendly environment throughout the State, in our Legislature, and in our schools. The Opportunity Coalition creates Connection Opportunities between business, politics, academia, and non-profits. This provides growth opportunities, communication, and understanding among and between each group. The voice and concerns of business, entrepreneurs, employees, and thought leaders must be heard in government and in educational environments.

The Opportunity Coalition promotes the ideals of free markets, capitalism, Constitutional Values, and Liberty. There is no cost to join and this organization has the potential to provide unlimited opportunity for you, your friends, and our State.

Who should join?

Business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, thought leaders, legislators, and anyone who wants to make a positive impact in Colorado! To sign up and join today, please click here. By doing so, you will receive information regarding future networking events throughout the State, and have access to Connection Point, which provides information regarding new job opportunities, start-up ventures, postings of needs and services, new business ideas and tremendous savings opportunities on business services.

The first networking event will be held at the:

Over 80 companies have been founded at the Innovation Pavilion within the past year. This is the perfect environment to hold our first networking event and to discuss how we can create even more opportunities, business connections, and quality jobs throughout Colorado. The next event will be held on the Western Slope in May 2013.

Please stay tuned more details! We hope that you will join us in making a positive difference!